Tipping Points

Human activity and rising temperatures will potentially cause major elements of the Earth’s climate system to tip into new states. With the increasing warming of the global climate, environmental changes can occur first slowly and then suddenly in various regions of the world. This moment of tilting into a new state is called the Tipping Point. Once set in motion, these non-linear processes can amplify themselves and, through complex interactions, may lead to a further increase in temperatures and global warming. The ongoing effects are often hard to predict and partly irreversible. The disappearance of the boreal forests, the retreat of the Arctic sea ice, the destabilisation of the Indian monsoon, and the loss of coral reefs are all examples of climate-tipping factors, a number of which have been visualised and staged by design students at FH Potsdam as spatial installations that make these devastating dynamics vivid and sensuous.